/**
 * Copyright (C) 2001-2020 by RapidMiner and the contributors
 * 
 * Complete list of developers available at our web site:
 * 
 * http://rapidminer.com
 * 
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
 * GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3
 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
 * even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
 * Affero General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program.
 * If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
*/
package com.rapidminer.operator;

/**
 * Generic interface for user data objects.
 * 
 * @param <T>
 *            The type the user data will be attached to. An instance of this type will be supplied
 *            to the copy method.
 * @author Michael Knopf
 */
public interface UserData<T> {

	/**
	 * Invoked if the parent object is duplicated. Implementations may return self references,
	 * shallow copies, or deep copies, depending on what is appropriate in the context.
	 *
	 * @param newParent
	 *            the reference to the new (duplicated) parent object
	 * @return A self reference, a shallow copy, or a deep copy of the user data.
	 */
	public UserData<T> copyUserData(T newParent);
}
